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Piney-Z Plantation Memo

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Intro Today we have a much greater understanding than any time before on what if affecting our health that has led to an alarming rate of chronic conditions, including heart disease, obesity, asthma, depression, and diabetes. These are directly linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, and land-use patterns, including access to transportation, urban design, and housing characteristics that can make an impact on people’s ability to participate in physical activity. The land-use pattern that has plagued the United States and Florida since the end of World War II has been suburban sprawl that has led to auto-dependence, air pollution, and a much higher risk of respiratory disease. However, we have the ability to combat these tragedies by shaping …show more content…

Positioned in eastern Tallahassee off the Apalachee Parkway, it offers an ideal location that is in close proximity to shopping centers, the Capitol, and within walking distance of both Lincoln High School and Swift Creek Middle School. Of greatest importance to this proposal, it borders the Lafayette Heritage Trail Park, which features two trails, one that heads east and follows the edge of Piney-Z Lake and one that heads west that leads to Tom Brown Park following the Upper Lake Lafayette. So our “neighborhood” will be a triangle of land that spans from Piney Z to Lafayette Heritage Trail Park to Tom Brown Park and for the sake of this proposal, we will call it the “Lafayette Neighborhood.” We chose this neighborhood because we feel, due to its location, it’s a prime spot to invest in the promotion of healthy living through a variety of outlets stemming from the trails that link to the numerous amenities of Tom Brown …show more content…

We plan to accomplish this firstly by improving the trail between the Tom Ford Park and Lafayette Heritage Trail Park. As of right now, it’s quite narrow in some areas and because it’s a shared-use trail between cyclists and pedestrians it means there is little room for coexistence so we’d like to expand it by at least two feet. We also propose that we should increase public knowledge of these trails through the use of social media, information sessions at the Piney-Z Homeowners Association meetings, and through a partnership with the FSU Hiking Club. There is also very little signage at both parks, especially Tom Brown where the entrance to the trail is just an ingrowth in the forest without any declaration. We recommend that clear and vibrant signs are erected in both parks that display a map of the trail marked with locations and amenities at both places as to encourage use. As we walked through Piney-Z, to our dismay, we noticed many of the streets lacked sidewalks, forcing us to walk on the road and dodge oncoming cars by moving onto people’s lawns which one resident, in particular, wasn’t so pleased with. So to keep this community safe and encourage people to walk in the neighborhood and to the park we propose to create sidewalks along every street in the

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